Had a great day at Rockingham today. I was on my R1 due to the 1199 being at the dealers but saw an 899 and a 1199 and had a good chat with the owners. Either of you on here by any chance, I forgot to ask?
I was there on my Hypermotard in the novice group. First ever track experience, definitely won't be the last!
Now edited, after 24 years of living in England I still can't spell lol There were a few s1000rr there what group would he of been in?
I remember chatting with you Ben, your bike sounds great around the circuit. Can't remember but was it you that will be doing the John O Groats - Lands End trip ?
I suspect Jan would have been in either novice or inters. Probably inters. His s1000 has far too many stickers. He also has a multi
Thanks, didn't come without its issues though. No not a trip I'm planning but I think I was chatting with yourself at the Dunlop stand during the presentation Can't say I did spot him there was a few S1000rr's there. One got a little to close for comfort in one of my sessions
He did mention he highsided his bike on one of the right handers and was very nearly off and people following him passed shaking their heads.
I have to say though that as an experience, it was great I didn't have anyone crash or nearly crash near me until the last session of the day, some poor guy on a suzuki gsxr came off at the last chicane.
Thought I'd stick up a report from yesterday at Rockingham. Not many pretty pictures unfortunately but hopefully some will turn up later. I put my name down for a competition with Performance Bikes magazine a month or two back and got a call saying that I had a place. I like the magazine as it's sport orientated and doesn't take things too seriously. After such an awesome day for free I'll be calling in for a subscription. I've done a lot of time on track in cars and got a bit sick of all the gear required to compete so I decided to keep it simple and ride from London to Rockingham and hope I didn't bin it I was reasonably quick at Donnington so I decided to be a bit necky and put myself in fast group and move down to intermediate if I was embarrassing myself and not able to keep up. I figured fast group would be smaller and have people taking good lines that I could learn from. I was lucky enough to have grabbed some space in the paddock next to some very friendly people with a full tea boat and biscuits. The caffeine supply was consistent through the day and much appreciated! There were loads of interesting bikes; everything from an awesome home built old school Two stroke Suzuki race bike, a couple of Honda RC45 (I think it was that?), to a brand new Panigale 1199 which I was envious of as I was planning on bringing my own but it had to go into the dealers for some loving. I sneaked in an extra session at the end with the Novices and the grunt in the 1199 was good to see. I could easily pass him in the corners as it was his first trackday as well but he was straight past me if there was a bit of a straight. The 899 in the pictures is a guy that I was in the Paddock with , in the same group as me and going very well. Since I had rode to the track all that was needed was to drop my tyre pressures a little and get out there. I have Pireli Super Corsas on the R1 and I find they are best at around 30psi, I put a little more in the back for long motorway riding but that's about it. The inters went out first and was the biggest group with perhaps thirty bikes and a wide range of abilities. Fast group was next and I could see I was going to have my work cut out as there was a fair few race bikes , at least one with slicks. There was only about twelve bikes in the group so it wasn't too pressured. I spent the first couple sessions learning the lines. I was certainly one of the slowest in the group along with a couple other road bikes and I was considering moving down into inters but by the third session I had learnt the lines and was able to hang onto the back of the main pack. I didn't have the speed or confidence to pass more than a couple of the slower bikes now and again but I was happy that I had managed to get fast enough to enjoy the group without embarrassing myself or being a safety issue, something I was being careful to avoid as despite plenty of time in cars on track, I have very little on bikes. I was really improving my riding during the times I was hanging on the back of the faster riders and came back with some big smiles after the sessions. I'd probably benefit from doing some inters trackdays where I can practice passing people a bit more but other than that I wasn't too far out of my depth and don't think I was irritating anyone. A few of the fast bikes put in some very late braking passes on me which was quite something to experience and was hopefully entertaining for them. I managed to pass a couple of them again coming out of the corners as they had compromised their lines but they were soon past me again on the straights despite me being full throttle as soon as I could manage on the R1. I did notice I was picking the Fireblades up quicker at Donnington last month. A few of the instructors / organisers were on Ducati Monsters and cruising past me with ease. I always think it's very cool when I see bikes like this passing a load of racebikes! The track is really good, perhaps lacking in character a little as it's based on the American speedway and infield type model so doesn't have much gradient, but it's good quality with stacks of grip. It runs anti clockwise and the middle complex of three long left handers was particularly fun. The grip is so good and you're on full lean for so long that you can really start messing around doing Marquez impressions with your elbow once you get up to speed. Combine that with a couple of good hairpins, a chicane, and some super fast corners on the speed way and a heavy brake into the first hairpin and it makes up for a great day out. I had a moment in the second session where I hadn't quite learnt the lines and cooked my brakes a bit going into the top chicane. The curbs are massive so I was glad I managed to save it and drop into the corner on time. The previous owner had changed the discs and pads on the R1 and it was super strong braking for the first month but it's not quite as strong now so perhaps needs bleeding? Other than going wide a couple of times on the off camber corner after the first hairpin, the day went very smoothly and I got faster and faster through the day. I asked Johnny from Performance Bikes to come out with me in one of the sessions and he was very complementary on my riding so it's nice to hear that I'm doing the right things and not starting off with any bad habits. I'm not sure whats next now, perhaps Brands Hatch or Silverstone as they are fairly close, either way I'm looking forward to trying some new tracks and hopefully meet up with a few people in the process. That's me doing the silly hand gestures for the camera.
Put up a little report from the day in case anyone has phots: Performance Bikes Trackday - Rockingham | Ducati Forum
Oops how could I forget that! Top guy and very down to earth as well. We watched Road at the cinema tonight and he was doing a live Q and A with the Dunlop brothers afterwards.
